Letters

Concerned that majority of cuts falling on families with children

IN her letter of July 7, Professor Dowler astutely sums up the impact of unfair measures put in place by the Government since 2010.

I would add, however, that four out of five of the richest people in the UK are now better-off under current austerity measures – while four out of five of the poorest are worse-off. The distribution of our national income is increasingly more unequal.

The latest figures show 8,345 children in Oxford defined as living in poverty – which means their household income is below £16,000 or their parents are on benefits (Picture posed)

Added to this, I am greatly concerned that 70 per cent of all cuts are falling on families with children. And, as your article of July 8 highlights, the number of families stuck in the ‘hidden poverty’ trap is increasing.

As of today, 2.7 million children are being raised in poverty. Under continued austerity measures, by 2020 that is to rise to 3.4 million children in poverty – at which time poverty stands to cost the UK economy an annual amount of £35 billion, equivalent to about three per cent of GDP.

This really matters because societies with more equal distribution of incomes have better health, fewer social problems such as violence, drug abuse, teenage births, mental illness, obesity, and others, and are more cohesive than ones in which the gap between the rich and poor is greater.

We need fairer outcomes. We’re certainly not “all in this together” – and certainly not a lot of our children.

All those officers involved in smashing this £24m drugs ring (Mail, March 25) are to be highly commended for their hard work and the sentences passed must have given extreme satisfaction for a job well done...

Comments (1)

Do you remember when Gordon Brown abolished the 10p tax rate hitting the poorest in society? Do you remember year on year increasing our council tax? Labour should have done more for those in poverty when they were in power, instead, they just threw money at the problem not really solving anything.

Do you remember when Gordon Brown abolished the 10p tax rate hitting the poorest in society? Do you remember year on year increasing our council tax? Labour should have done more for those in poverty when they were in power, instead, they just threw money at the problem not really solving anything.mytaxes